EXPLORATORY RESEARCH

DESIGN
SECONDARY DATA
OBJECTIVES
 Define the nature & scope of secondary data
and distinguish secondary data from primary
data.
 Analyze the advantages and disadvantages of

secondary data and their uses in the various

steps of MR process.
 Evaluate secondary data using specifications,

error, currency, objectives, nature and

dependability criteria
OBJECTIVES
 Describe in detail the different sources of
secondary data both internal and external
sources.
 Discuss in detail the syndicated sources of

secondary data.
 Identify and evaluate the sources of

secondary data useful in international

marketing.
 Understand the ethical issues involved in the

use of secondary data.

EXPLORATORY RESEARCH
 The objective of exploratory research is to
explore or search through a problem or
situation to provide insights and
understanding.
 Common methods are
 Survey of experts
 Pilot surveys
 Secondary data
 Qualitative research
PRIMARY VS SECONDARY DATA
 Primary data are data originated by the
researcher for the specific purpose of
addressing the research problem.
 Secondary data are data collected for some

purpose other than the problem at hand.

 CASE: Boston market: some place like

home(105)
 CASE: High touch goes high tech (106)
PRIMARY VS SECONDARY DATA
CRITERIA PRIMARY DATA SECONDARY DATA

Collection purpose For problem in hand For other problems

Collection process Very involved Rapid and easy

Collection cost High Relatively low

Collection time Long short

USES OF SECONDARY DATA
 Identify the problem
 Better define the problem
 Develop an approach to the problem
 Formulate an appropriate research design
 Answer certain research questions and test

some hypothesis.
 Interpret primary data more insightfully.
DISADVANTAGES OF SECONDARY
DATA
 Since collected for purposes other than the
problem at hand, their usefulness to the
current problem is limited in several ways-
 Relevance
 Accuracy
 The objectives ,nature, and methods used to

collect secondary data may not be

appropriate to the present situation.
 It may not be completely current or

dependable
CRITERIA FOR EVALUATION
CRITERIA ISSUES REMARKS
SPECIFICATIONS/ Data collection Data should be
METHODOLOGY method response rate reliable, valid, and
Quality of data generalizable to the
Sampling technique problem at hand
Sample size
Questionnaire design
Field work
Data analysis
Error/ Examine errors in Assess accuracy by
Accuracy approach, research comparing data from
design, sampling, data different sources
collection, data
analysis, reporting
CRITERIA FOR EVALUATION
CRITERIA ISSUES REMARKS
CURRENCY Time lag between Census data are
collection and periodically updated
publication by syndicated firms
Frequency of updates
OBJECTIVE Why were the data Objective will
collected? determine the
relevance
NATURE Definition of key Reconfigure the data
variables to increase their
Units of measurement usefulness
Categories used
Relationships
examined
CRITERIA FOR EVALUATION
 SPECIFICATIONS: Methodology used to collect
the data
 The checks on size and nature of sample,

response rate and quality, questionnaire

design and administration, procedures used
for field work, data analysis and reporting
procedures provide information on the
reliability and the validity of the data.
 CASE: Rating the television ratings

methodology(108)
CRITERIA FOR EVALUATION
 ERROR: Accuracy of the data
 Accuracy for the purpose of present study

need to be determined.
 Secondary data can have a number of sources

of error if they relate to phenomena that are

subject to change.
 To reduce inaccuracy, multiple sources of

data is compared and by conducting pilot

studies.
 CASE: Detailing E-tailing revenues(109)
CRITERIA FOR EVALUATION
 CURRENCY: When the data were collected
 Secondary data may not be current and the

time lag between data collection and

publication is long in case of census data.
 The data may not be updated frequently

enough for the purpose of the problem at

hand.
 MR requires current data but the value of

secondary data is diminished as they become

dated
CRITERIA FOR EVALUATION
 OBJECTIVE: The purpose for which the data were
collected
 The objective for collecting the data determine

the purpose for which that information is

relevant.
 EXAMPLE: Scanner volume tracking data are

collected with the objective of examining

aggregate movement of brands, including shifts
in market shares. It is of limited value in a study
aimed at understanding how households select
specific brands.
CRITERIA FOR EVALUATION
 NATURE: The content of the data
 If the key variables are not defined or defined in

a manner inconsistent with the researcher’s

definition then the usefulness of the data is
limited.
 EXAMPLE: secondary data on consumer

preferences for TV programs. Was it defined in

terms of the program watched most often, the
one considered most needed, most informative,
or the program of greatest service to the
community?
CRITERIA FOR EVALUATION
 Secondary data may be measured in units
that may not be appropriate for the current
problem.
 EXAMPLE: Income may be measured by

individual , household or could be gross or

net after taxes. If researcher is interested in
AHI of over 90000 then secondary data with
income categories of less than 50000,
50000-75000, and 75000 and above will not
be of much use.
CRITERIA FOR EVALUATION
 DEPENDABILITY: How dependable are the data?
 It is obtained by examining the expertise,
credibility, reputation, and trustworthiness of the
source.
 Suspicious data: data published to promote sales,
data published anonymously, or the one that
hides data collection methodology and process.
 Original source vs acquired source
 Census of population is an original source
whereas Statistical abstracts of the United States
is an acquired source.
CLASSIFICATION OF
SECONDARY DATA
 Secondary Data

Internal External

Requires Published Computerized Syndicated

Ready to use Further Materials Databases Services
Processing
 Internal data:
Data that are generated within the organization.

Eg: Sales Invoices

INTERNAL SECONDARY DATA
Eg: Department Store Project
Sales were analyzed to obtain:
 Sales by product line
 Sales by major department (e.g., men's wear, house wares)
 Sales by specific stores
 Sales by geographical region
 Sales by cash versus credit purchases
 Sales in specific time periods
 Sales by size of purchase
 Sales trends in many of these classifications were also
examined.
DATABASE MARKETING

 It involves using of computers to capture and track

customer profiles and purchase detail about customers.

 This information serves as foundation for marketing

programs or as an internal source of information related to
customers.

 Many companies have to transfer raw sales information

into more meaningful database about the customers.
Type of Individual/Household Level Data
Available from Syndicated Firms
 Demographic Data
 - Identification (name, address, telephone)
 - Sex
 - Marital status
 - Names of family members
 - Age (including ages of family members)
 - Income
 - Occupation
 - Number of children present
 - Home ownership
 - Length of residence
 - Number and make of cars owned
Type of Individual/Household Level Data
Available from Syndicated Firms
 Psychographic Lifestyle Data
 - Interest in golf
 - Interest in snow skiing
 - Interest in book reading
 - Interest in running
 - Interest in bicycling
 - Interest in pets
 - Interest in fishing
 - Interest in electronics
 - Interest in cable television
 There are also firms such as Dun & Bradstreet and American
Business Information which collect demographic data on businesses.
 CLASSIFICATION OF PUBLISHED
SECONDARY SOURCES
Published Secondary
Data

General Business Government

Sources Sources

Guides Directories Indexes Statistical Census Other

Data Data Government
Publications
 GENERAL BUSINESS DATA
Guides
 An excellent source of standard or recurring information
 Helpful in identifying other important sources of directories, trade
associations, and trade publications
 One of the first sources a researcher should consult

Directories
 Helpful for identifying individuals or organizations that collect
specific data
 Examples: Telephone directories, Directory of important web links,
Government contacts etc.
Indices

 Helpful in locating information on a particular topic in

several different publications

Non-governmental statistical data

 Sources for these are A guide to consumer markets,

predicasts forecasts, Standard rate and Data services etc
 The researchers can perform graphical and statistical
analyses for getting more important insights.
GOVERNMENT SOURCES
CENSUS DATA
 It brings out statistics every 10 years. For researchers, the
Indian Census is an interesting data source.
 The census is available on various subjects like Population,
Economy, Finance, Literacy, death and birth rate etc.

OTHER GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS

 Eg: Gazette , Statistical Documents contains

segments of population and its socio-economic

conditions
SYNDICATED SOURCES
SYNDICATED DATA
 Major source of external secondary data
 Common pool of data of known commercial

value
 Can be classified based on the unit of

measurement as household consumer or

institution
SYNDICATED DATA FROM
HOUSEHOLD
SURVEYS:
 Large respondents
 Predetermined questionnaire
 Classified into psychographic & lifestyle,

advertisement evaluation and general survey

 Psychographic :
Provides quantified psychological profiles of
individuals
 Lifestyle:

Distinctive pattern of living

Case: campbell caters to healthy appetites with
chunky soup
Refer pg 121
Advertisement Evaluation:
To assess effectiveness of advertising using
print and broadcast media.
Magazine Impact Research Service:
Test ads in magazine at in homes
Provides measures about recall, persuasion,ad
reaction..
Used by heavy advertisers
 TV ADVERTISING
Recruited audience method
In home viewing method
 General surveys

Examination of purchase and consumer

behaviour
For gauging the strength and weakness of
company
Uses of surveys:
 Market segmentation
 Establishing consumer profiles
 Product image and positioning
 Conducting price perception analysis

Caselet: CARAVAN survey..refer pg 122

Advantages of survey:
 flexible
 Info about motives, attitude and preferences

Disadvantages of survey:
 Rely on respondents self report
 Gap between what people say and what they

do
 Samples are biased, questions poorly phrased

leads to misinterpreted results

Purchase Panels:
A data gathering technique in which respondents
record their purchases online or in a diary
Caselet : Information in these diaries is no
secret..refer pg 123
Media Panels:
A data gathering behaviour in which television
viewing behaviour is automatically recorded by
electronic devices, supplementing the purchase
information recorded online or in a diary..eg
nielson television index by nielson market research
Uses:
 Forecast sales
 Estimate market shares
 Assess brand loyalty and brand switching

behaviour
Advantages:
Provide longitudinal data
Improved quality data
Recording is accurate, no errors
Electronic Scanner devices:
Data obtained by passing merchandise over a
laser scanner that reads a UPC Code from the
packages
3 types of scanner data are available: they are
as follows
 Volume tracking data:
Data collected from check out scanner tapes that
provide info on purchases by brand, size, price and
flavour
 Scanner panels:

Scanner data where panel members are identified by an

id card allowing each panel member’s purchase to be
stored wrt individual shopper
 Scanner panels with cable TV:

Combination of scanner panel with manipulations on

advertsing that is being broadcast by cable television
companies
Uses of scanner data:
National volume tracking analysis useful for
tracking sales, price, distribution, modelling
and early warning signals
Scanner panels with cable tv for testing new
products , repositioning products, analysing
promotional mix , making ad decisions ,
media and pricing
Advantages:
Reflect purchase behaviour not subject to
interviewing , recording etc
Info collected is current,unbiased and complete
Disadvantages:
Lack of representativeness
Only large supermarkets have scanners & have
only limited geographic dispersion
Do not provide info on underlying attitudes ,
preferences and reasons for specific choices
Computerised databases
Classification of computerised databases:
online databases
Databases, stored in computers, which require a
telecommunications network to access.

Internet databases
Internet databases can be accessed, searched, and
analyzed on the Internet. It is also possible to download
data from the Internet and store it in the computer or an
auxiliary storage device
 offline databases:
Databases that are available on diskette or CD-
ROM.
Bibliographic databases
Databases composed of citations to articles
in journals, magazines, newspapers,
marketing research studies, technical reports,
government documents, and the like. They
often provide summaries or abstracts of the
material citied.
Numeric database:
 Contains numerical & statistical info

Full-text database:
 Databases containing complete text of secondary

source documents comprising the database

Directory database:
Provides info on organisation , individuals and
services
Special purpose database:
Contains information on specific nature.
Syndicated data from Institutions
Retailer & wholesaler Audits
 The most popular way of obtaining data
from retailer and wholesalers is an audit.
 Audit is a data collection process derived

from physical records or by performing

inventory analysis
 Data are collected personally by the

researcher or by representatives of the

researcher and it is based on counts usually
of physical object other than people.
 Retailers and Wholesalers who participate in
the audit receive basic report and cash
payments from the audit service.
 Audit is focus on the product and services

sold through the outlets.

 Although audits are still being conducted,

many do not collect manually but make use

of computerized information.
Uses of audit data
 Determining the size of the total market and
the distribution of sales.
 Assessing brand shares and competitive

activity.
 Identifying shelf space allocation and

inventory problem
 Analyzing distribution problems.
 Developing sales potential and forecasts.
 Developing and monitoring promotional

allocations based on sales volume.

Advantage
 It provide relatively accurate information on

the movement of many different products.

 The information is further broken down by

no of important vales such as brand, type of

outlet and size of the market.
Disadvantage
 It have limited coverage.
 Audit information may not be timely or

current.
 It can not be linked to customer

characteristics.
Case: Refer pg no 129.
Industry services
 It provide syndicate data about industrial firm,
businesses, and other institutions.
 Financial, operating and employment data are

also collected by these syndicated researcher

services for almost every North American
Industry Classification System industrial
category.
 These data are collected by making direct

inquiries from clipping services that monitor

newspaper, trade press or broadcasts and from
corporate reports.
Uses:
 It provide information for Sales management

decisions
 It can also aid in advertising decision
 And it is also helps to segment the market

and designing custom products and services

Advantage
 It represent an important source of secondary

information on industrial firms.

Disadvantage:
 It is limited in the nature, content, quantity

and quality information.

Combining information from different sources

Single source Data:

An effort to combine data from different sources
by gathering integrated information on
household and marketing variables applicable to
the same set of respondents.
Case :Refer pg 130
Computer Mapping:
It combines geography with demographic
information and a company’s sale data or other
proprietary information to develop thematic
maps.
Case : Refer pg 131
Buying Power Index
 Sales and marketing management annual survey
provides data to help analyze the market , whether they
are cities, countries, metro areas or states.
 It features statistics, rankings and projections with
demographic broken out by age, race, city and so on.
 It provides information on retail spending and projection
for growth in these areas.
 Effective buying income = disposal income + BPI, for
which survey is best known
 Survey- spending power of population, EBI and retail
sales
International Marketing Research
Sources of International secondary data In US:
1) Domestic organizations
 Govt
 Non Govt

2)Organization in foreign countries

 Govt
 International organizations
 Trade Associations.
 For the domestic org In the US, both govt
and non govt are providing secondary data.
 The important govt sources are Dep of
commerce, the Export –Import bank of US,
the Dep of Agri.
 Non govt sources are OECD, IMF, the world
bank and the international chambers of
commerce.
 Evaluation of secondary data is even more
critical for international than for domestic
projects.
 The accuracy of the secondary data may also
vary from country to country.
 Data from highly industrialized countries like

US is more accuracy .

Case refer pg 133.

Ethics in marketing Research
 The researcher is ethically obligated to
ensure the relevance and usefulness of the
secondary data to problem at hand.
 Only data judged to be appropriate should be

used.
 The data should be collected using

procedures that are morally appropriate.

 Data can be judged unethical if it is gathered

in a away that harms the respondent.

Case refer pg 134.
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